Archive of the pre-timeskip roleplays. If you wish to continue a pre-timeskip roleplay, you'll have to do so in the DT Freestyle subforum! PM Thalar to have a thread moved from this subforum to the Freestyle subforum.

'Oh Sharess you guys, lets just say its on our black sun friends." Mae turned her head towards them.She have to kept it in mind the next time to make sure they don't get cheat the next bar they go to. She rather liked the White Lion.

Few would disagree that this was a strange world they lived in, full of magical or otherwise wondrous things and quirky and colorful going-ons and individuals. It was also a world full of sadness and loss, and everyone had their own trails to deal with on occasion. Sometimes however some places happened to get some of the more...down to Earth issues and people passing through, and today(or was it tonight? Nathan had already lost his sense of time once he descended down from his surface world) The White Lion would be receiving a particularly scruffy new guest. If anyone ever had doubts that the race of Goblins that called themselves Halmes were ever a savage people the filthy Halme that had just pushed open the entrance to this fine establishment would not be assuaging such feelings, not when he looked(and smelled) like he had been drug down ten miles of dirt road on his face. Nathan Fulton had made a less than glorious entrance, haggard and tired from nearly a solid week spent tracking a large group of men to this very city, or at least so he believed. He had however hit a dead end when wilderness turned to civilization and his time honed skills at following tracks and trails provided him little in the way of any capability of tracking down what he was looking for in such a populated and foreign city. Still even he knew that the best place to start looking would be where people gathered to socialize and drink and it certainly helped that he might also be able to find some lodging and maybe take a bath and track down a razor for his face.

Just looking at him one would think that he was some sort of barbarous wild-man straight out of some dirt hovel on the surface world, here to spend his hard pillaged gold or jewels on an attempt to try some foreign darkskin wine or ale, but no! No Nathan was actually probably one of the more civilized Halmes one would likely ever have the 'privilege' if one used the word lightly, of ever meeting. The road however had not been kind to him, and his seemingly inhuman trek through the wild had taxed both his physical and mental state. He was a wreck, his clothes were coated in mud and dirt, bits of sticks and leaves hanging out from his sleeves where he had pushed his way through trees or stumbled out of sheer exhaustion and fallen, only to push himself up and onward. Dark circles hung around his sunken eyes, he looked as if he could fall over at any minute if he got even one chance to rest. He sported several cuts on his face, most of which were concealed by an uncharacteristic amount of stubby beard that hid his face, the short black hairs masking several cuts he had gotten from low hanging branches. His clothing was, well, filthy was a word but it certainly might not have gone far enough in the eyes of many of the patrons that were present at The White Lion today, his pants torn in several places and his shirt caked in filth. The smell matched his looks, even causing many to shuffle away as he walked inside the door. Still for a man that looked more like a prisoner of war than anything else he held his head up when he took his first steps towards the bar, his eyes wearily scanning the area for someone he could call upon that worked here. There was much he needed to ask, and he needed to ask somebody who was in the know. Sadly his hopes of asking any of the more common or dignified patrons were decreasing with every step he took as many shot him cruel glares and contempt filled glaces. He couldn't blame him, he knew his race was not well tolerated here even if it was a city that granted them their freedom as citizens. He knew this all too well, it was something he had dealt with all too frequently in years past, and his ragtag appearance didn't likely help. He had to go so far as to use that long curved bit of wood he was carrying to prop himself up, though if anyone looked close enough they would recognize the implement as the shaft of an unstrung bow. Finally he hobbled his way over to the bar letting out a great sigh of relief as he lowered himself gently into a seat and patiently awaited until he could get the attention of a barkeeper or a patron whom might be capable of telling him some things about this city he was in. He would tolerate the harsh words that were being whispered(though not that quietly) around him, as he knew he had no right to contest such things at this time. Maybe when he washed up and got some sleep he could argue the finer points of his heritage with his gracious citywide hosts. For now however Nathan Fulton was glad to have a seat that actually had some form of mild cushioning added to it.

Its been a long while since I've been to the white lion Trinita thought to himself as he walked down the streets and into the bar. After some excitement above ground, Trinita was long over due for some r and r.

Walking in, he note of those who were in the bar before taking a seat of his own, "Grog please." Trinita asked the bartender and got a mug of grog in return. "Here you go and thank you." the bartender said as he took the half ada Trinita handed him and returned to cleaning mugs.

Perhaps there was some type of god watching over this Halme today or perhaps fortune or luck or whatever forces were at work behind the scenes of mortal eyes were smiling on him, because not two and a half feet away from him a rather interesting man had taken a seat and ordered a drink. Or at least he seemed interesting enough so that Nathan in his sufficiently soiled condition leaned in a bit closer to get a look see at just whom he might be approaching. This particular Drow seemed about as normal as any he had ever met, perhaps not even the type to ignore him when he was talking! Regardless Nathan had nothing to lose when he cast his arm up, trying to wave his hand into the Drowolath's field of vision. The real challenge would be to see if he didn't simply drive the man away with his current condition, as even members of his own race might find him a bit too dirty and a bit too suspicious looking to risk coming in contact with. Still Nathan put on his most confident and friendly smile as he called out to the man in his best learned rendition on the common native Drow tongue.

"Sir! Ho there there sir!" he said as he continued his waving, eventually shifting from a wave to a beckoning hand gesture. "If you have a moment sir might I borrow it?" it was hard, a lot of these words he knew only from brief moments of conversations on the surface and many of those conversations had been many years ago. Some of these words he might have even ever only spoken once! Still he was doing his best to be polite and formal as he had no real need to make an enemy because he failed to use the proper greeting or failed to address someone by their proper title. It was one thing to haggle the price of pelts or captured creatures, it was another to try and slide into a conversation with a complete stranger at a bar maybe a hundred miles away from your home in a territory that was wholly unfamiliar. Wit would carry him through today, or so Nathan hoped.

"I assure you sir I won't take up much of your time, I just have a couple questions about the city here and you can return to your drink. If it makes a difference, I might also be able to compensate you for your efforts and knowledge." a merchant's proposal if ever there was one, though his almost comical attempts to blunder around what would normally have been very basic sentence structure and common slang didn't aid in making the matter sound very serious. Still this was very important to him, he had to have something to go, even if it was a lead he would have to follow up on sometime in the far future.

Trinita was sipping on his grog when a Halm was trying to call him over. It was a little strange for Trinita to get any attention outside his clan but he thought 'Ah what the hell, why not.' taking his grog he made his way over to the dirty Halms table. He wondered if he was some kind of beggar at first glance and wanted something else from him but Trinita decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"To whom am I speaking to and how can I help you?" Trinita asked and then offered "I can speak Halm, if it would make it things easier for you." he might as well put his Halm to practice.

Well this was certainly a day full of oddities. Nathan had not expected to find someone whom could speak his native tongue, let alone someone who displayed some sense of cordiality. He was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth however and he quickly switched over to his native Halme tongue. At least now he wouldn't speak so brokenly. He cleared his throat before he spoke again, rubbing his eyes with two blackened fingers before straightening his back up.

"My name is Nathan Fulton, Sir, and I would just like to ask a couple of basic questions about how some of the things in this city work. I come from very far North you see, I've never ventured this far South before and I don't think I'll be returning Northwards for some time. I believe it would do me some good to at least learn a few...things about the city I'm staying in while I conduct my business. Can't be too careful, you know?" for a Halme he spoke quite fluidly, and even had a decent grammar to boot. He certainly wasn't to be judged by how he looked alone. "Anyway good sir my primary question is this; If someone were to bring in captured surface folk here would there be a single location they where they were all gathered before being sold off? If not are there some common markets or...whatever one might use to sell capture slaves?" he paused, that last word sliding off his tongue with an almost vile revulsion. He absolutely could not stand the idea of his fellows or anyone of his race bound in chains, by -anyone- else. He hated the thought of anyone losing their freedom, be they Halme or Drow or otherwise! And while he was pained to think about it he knew that his daughter was already likely sold into such a life, or waiting to be. Nathan took a moment to take a single deep breath and compose himself, easing any tensions such a word had put into his mind before he resumed his queries.

"I apologize about that sir, sometimes my anger gets the better of me. I'm looking for someone you see, and I believe that they at least passed through here if not stopped here altogether. I believe they would make use of such a location, and so you see why it is I could use the directions." he chuckled weakly as he rubbed his heavy eyelids again, his body weary from his journey. "I do believe I also said I would pay you for your time, and I will if you would let me. Even common decency deserves a reward sometimes right?" he reached down into his dirty trousers and fumbled around for a moment before coming back with a small leather pouch, whose contents he dumped unto the counter. 9 blackened Ada were assembled into a small pile, each piece smelled heavy of burnt pine lumber and each was covered in a smudged layer of soot. In fact if one had ever bothered to take a whiff of the man to whom the coins belonged they would find he carried the same smell, albeit much overpowered by the air of unwashed Halme.

"I cannot spare much, but one Ada would suffice, yes?" he separated one Ada from the pile and slid it out from the rest, evenly spaced between the two individuals. For a man with so little to give away this much on common locational knowledge must have meant it mattered a great deal to him, right? Or maybe he was just generous to a fault, or plain stupid by nature.

The more Trinita hung around him the more the Halm started to smell. It was strange thou, why is this human covered in black soot? was he a miner?

"My name is Trinita from the Sarghress clan." Trinita nodded to Nathon, his Halm was good but he had a bit of a Chel accent to it, and as for his question he didn't have to think on it too hard. "Umm the best place for buying slaves in Raven would be in the market place (insert directions). They usually start biddings around noon or in the early in the evening." Trinita did take not of the anger in his voice and wonder if some slaver snatched somebody he knew. If so Trinita would have to watch himself carefully around him.

When Nathon pulled out his soot covered ada and offered it to him Trinita raised an eye brow a bit, "No thank you Nathon, the information I a gave you wasn't worth a copper. But may I ask how did you get covered in soot? Its very strange."

That was one way to touch a nerve on this particular Halme, even if it was an innocent question. How could he possibly answer? Only a week ago he had buried the two bodies of the people whom he loved the most in this world, and yet here he was now, so far from those shallow graves being asked about why he more closely resembled a chimney than a regular human being. He was slow to take his hand back, the Ada still pressed under his fingers as it slid over the surface of the bar. He stopped only when it sat directly in front of him, staring down at that blackened monetary piece with a downtrodden stare. It took him almost half a minute before he looked back up, sighing as he lifted that particular piece into his hands and gave it a few runs over with his thumb.

"No more than maybe 8 days ago I returned from a venture in the wilds surrounding my home to find that it had been burnt to the ground by some group of unknown trespassers. I had to dig through the brunt remains of my wooden home to find the corpses of my son and his mother, both of whom had likely been killed by whoever it was who sacked my home. I look and smell as I do because I had to bury them and then sift through whatever else remained s that I might find some clue as to where my daughter had gone. That's why I'm here, you see. My best guess is that they took her and headed this way, and as far as I could track them this is where they passed through next. I'm days behind them and haven't had a chance to properly eat, sleep or bathe since I left by destroyed home and in many ways my life behind." he had rubbed that Ada so hard with his thumb that some of the metallic glint could be seen through the heavy layer of ash and blackened soot that coated the coinage. He had to have something to vent his anger into even if it was nothing more than a simple piece of money he had scavenged from a smoldering ruin.

"I'm here hoping to either find my daughter and take her someplace where she might be treated better, or to at least find whomever was responsible and ask them about her whereabouts. I know it must seem strange to have not yet given up hope on what would normally be a lost cause, but I've already failed her mother and her brother, I could not bear to know I failed her too." he let the coin slip from his hand, the piece tumbling down into the small pile that lay scattered over his small portion of the bar. "Well that and if I find-..." he paused again, running his tongue out between his lips a moment as if to clean some foul taste from his mouth. "When I find her and make sure she is taken care of, I figure it would be best if I stayed far away from my old home. I mean where could be farther than here, right? I'm sure there is something a Halme like me could do, another set of hands never hurt anybody." and for the first time since he had stepped foot into The White Lion Nathan cracked a smile and chuckled, even if it was only an ephemeral moment of humor. He returned to his downtrodden mood quite shortly afterword, his smile fading.

"But thank you Sir Trinita of the Sarghress Clan, you are too kind in your actions." he bowed his head. "It means more to me than you know, I assure you."

Another chuckle issued forth from Nathan's gut, deep and hearty in nature. Either he had found something particularly funny or perhaps he wasn't really right in the ehad after all. This question would be answered in mere moments as he spoke again, raising his hands up and folding them neatly, his chin resting on his blackened knuckles.

"You know I wasn't even aware the Sarghress took in non-drow soldiers. Though it wouldn't surprise me, If I recall correctly your clan began as mercenaries once right? I can respect that they can put aside their traditional hatred of my kind to find a place for them among their ranks, though my runs ins with the raiders they send up from down here has never been very..." he paused. He was trying to think of a word that was a little more kind than what immediately came to the front of his mind. "Well it has never been very friendly. Though I must admit they're better than others I've heard of, at least they were willing to talk to me before they took my things!" another chuckle, another half hearted smile, once again fading quickly.

"Well Sir Trinita I believe I know enough to get started thanks in no small part to your wisdom. You have my thanks once again, and while I hate to seem rude by ending this abruptly I find that if I don't get into a bed soon I might just fall asleep at the bar here. If we should meet again sir, I promise to be a little more presentable and smell a good deal less foul." he unclasped his hands and beckoned the barkeeper over, pausing for a moment to once again look back to Trinita. "If you'll excuse me good sir Sarghress, I've got a room to rent and perhaps a bath to take. Enjoy the rest of your drink and your...day? I can't even tell what time it is down here..." he shook his head before turning back to the barkeep, whom looked more than a little agitated that he had been flagged down only to have to wait longer to find out why he was called. A conversation of no real importance to anyone aside from Nathan would ensue, and after a good deal of haggling and assurance that he wasn't some sort of crazed bow toting homeless man and that his money was in fact genuine and not a poor attempt at counterfeiting Nathan had managed to rent himself a cot for a few days, and even haggled in access to a public bath. Not the most glorious of arrangements, but considering that he was used to sleeping on the floor of his old home it really wasn't so bad. A call back to his younger days even, though those still seemed to be so very very far away. With a polite nod to the barkeep, another look and nod back to Trinita, and the exchange of a good deal of his coin Nathan pushed himself up unto his feet once more and departed. When next her awoke Nathan would have to begin assorting out his affairs if he planned to stay here long, as well as dropping by this marketplace. First however, he needed to shave...

"Well then a good night to you Nathon." Trinita nodded to the dirty Halme before returning to his drink.

After having a few drink Trinita decided he's had enough, Getting up and heading out the door after paying his tab, Trinita muttered to himself about the work he'll have to do tomorrow. Work and more work, Trinita didn't give himself much time off often but when he did he liked to be with friends.

Trinita led the way to the White Lion. It wasn't hard to find the place, it was one of Trinitas perfered drinking holes in Val Raven. He kept the door open for Sik'sani before he looking for a table.

"Tell me Sik'sani, have you ever been to the surface?" Trinita asked as he sat down at the table. Soon after they sat down a waitress arrived "What can I get you Lords and Ladies?" "I'll have grog and the lady will have something within a Sarghress spending range." He turned to small fox with a smile.

Sik'sani accepted the smile with one of her own, as she said, "Oh, well that knocks out my normal drink. I'll have to simply struggle through the same as the fine solider here."

As the waitress left, she turned her full gaze on Trinita and smirked. Leaning back into her chair, she said, "I have considered taking in the old lands, but have never quite gotten the chance beyond merely considering it. Tell me is it truly as amazingly dangerous as tales make it out to be or is it fools blowing up the egos?"